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en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2018 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/03/fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-will-not-attend-ces/https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/03/fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-will-not-attend-ces/https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/03/fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-will-not-attend-ces/#comments

If you were hoping FCC Chairman Ajit Pai would answer for some of his policy decisions with his presence at CES... well, you'll be disappointed. The Consumer Technology Association has issued a brief statement saying that Pai is "unable to attend" CES 2018, where he was slated to participate in a "candid conversation" on January 9th. There's no reason given, and neither the CTA nor the FCC is willing to comment. Needless to say, it's odd to cancel at the last minute with no explanation.

Many have accused FCC Chairman Ajit Pai of being a telecom shill between his background as a former Verizon lawyer and his determination to ignore all public input (not to mention complaints about comment bots) as he kills net neutrality. And apparently, his attempts at joking about it are only reinforcing those views. Gizmodo has obtained video of Pai trying to roast himself at the Federal Communications Bar Assocation's annual event, including a pre-recorded skit where an actual Verizon executive (senior VP Kathy Grillo) talks about wanting to "brainwash and groom a Verizon puppet" to become the FCC chairman, with Pai responding that it sounds like an "awesome" idea.

Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a crackdown on alleged corruption, and its dragnet has caught one of the tech world's most important investors: the country has arrested Prince al-Waleed bin Talal over money laundering charges. He has major stakes in satellite TV providers and in recent years has been one of the largest individual investors in a number of well-known tech giants, including Apple and Lyft. The royal is particularly important to Twitter's fate. He poured $300 million into the social network in 2011, and his stake is second only to that of Twitter co-founder Ev Williams -- even CEO Jack Dorsey has a smaller financial commitment.

Following his arrest, Samsung Vice-Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be indicted on charges of bribery, embezzlement and two other crimes, according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. It's the start of legal proceedings that could put Lee in jail for years, stalling a planned succession due to his father's heart attack and hospitalization. Four other executives were charged, including Corporate Strategy Office Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki.

Samsung just dodged a bullet... for a while, anyway. A South Korean court has dismissed a warrant to arrest the company's Vice Chairman and de facto leader, Lee Jae-yong, in an investigation alleging that Samsung paid the President's scandal-ridden confidant to illegally secure approval for a merger. There's just not enough evidence to suggest that an arrest is needed, according to the judge. While this doesn't guarantee that Lee is completely off the hook, he won't have to worry about jail time in the foreseeable future.

Samsung's past several months have been pretty lousy, but they're about to get much, much worse. South Korean prosecutors have announced that they're seeking a warrant to arrest Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (aka Jay Y. Lee), the electronics giant's effective leader, over accusations of bribery and other misdeeds. Investigators allege that Lee was involved in payments made to Choi Soon-sil, an ally of the country's impeached President with cultish control, in a supposed bid to clinch approval for a merger.

South Korea is currently embroiled in a massive corruption scandal: President Park Geun-hye is facing impeachment after word broke that her 'friend,' Choi Soon-sil, had cult-like control over Park that included access to sensitive info and forced donations to Choi's foundations. And now, it looks like Samsung's highest leadership might be caught up in the whole affair. The country's special prosecutor's office has named effective Samsung leader Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (aka Jay Y. Lee) as a suspect in a case alleging that Samsung illegally influenced government decisions. Investigators are worried that roughly $25 million in payments to a Choi business and foundations may have convinced the national pension fund to support a merger of two Samsung affiliate companies. It may have offered bribes, in other words.

Yesterday, a coalition of journalists across the world launched the Panama Papers, a project to uncover the dirty secrets of the rich and powerful. An anonymous source provided reporters at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung with a 2.6TB dump of files from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. The documents reveal a web of private, secretly-held offshore companies that can be used to hide a fortune or avoid paying tax. For instance, The Guardian accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of hiding $2 billion in offshore companies that are "owned" by a close friend. It has taken anywhere up to a year for a team to scour the data to find some dirty secrets, and far more are likely to emerge as the files are analyzed. This didn't happen in isolation, however. It's just the latest in a long line of leaks and breaches that have put what some would prefer remain secret in the spotlight. Check out the timeline above to look at some of the most notable ones of the last few years.

You'd think that a former Secret Service agent caught stealing Bitcoins during the Silk Road case would know better than to try to elude authorities, but apparently that isn't the case. Ex-investigator Shaun Bridges was re-arrested January 29th after he was caught with bags containing a passport, records for offshore accounts, documents for his wife's non-US citizenship application and multiple bulletproof vests. Needless to say, that looks more than a little suspicious -- especially when Bridges was a day away from turning himself in to serve a nearly 6-year sentence for corruption charges. It's not exactly certain what he had in mind, but the odds are that he wanted to be out of the US on January 30th.

Many activists thrive on Twitter, both to get their messages heard and to coordinate their on-the-ground action. However, it looks like there's a growing, sophisticated effort to dismantle Mexican anti-corruption and anti-violence protests through the same social network.Journalists have noticed that Twitter-based bots are trying to drown out Mexican activists' posts, issue death threats and promote counter-protest messages. They've been present as far back as 2012, when bogus accounts backed President Enrique Peña Nieto during his election campaign, but they've kicked into high gear following the September 2014 disappearance of 43 students that sparked a massive outcry.

Oh, the irony. Disgraced former senator Leland Yee has pleaded guilty to charges of taking bribes in exchange for votes, racketeering and promising to smuggle guns into the US from the Philippines. Of course, like so many beautiful twists of fate, Yee was a prominent moral crusader who led a campaign against violent video games. The senator authored AB-1179, legislation that would have outlawed the sale of said titles to California's teens, which was defeated by the Supreme Court. Way to keep our kids safe, Leels.

Russia's Roscosmos space program doesn't have a lot of cash to waste after its budget was cut by 35 percent in March. But an internal audit found that it flushed $1.8 billion down the toilet anyway, according to the Moscow Times. The nation's deputy prime minister said many of the losses were caused by "acts of fraud, abuse of authority and forgery of documents." Referring to two recent setbacks, including the loss of an ISS cargo ship, he added that "with such a level of moral decay, one should not be surprised at the high accident rate."

Some less-than-ethical businesspeople are learning the hard way that even secure messaging systems aren't all that private. Brazilian authorities have used BlackBerry Messenger records (obtained through warrants and BlackBerry's help) to level corruption charges against over 100 people skimming money from the country's state-owned oil company, Petrobras. The chats not only confirmed relationships between culprits, but indicated when people were arranging cash drop-offs and other suspicious activities. There aren't any convictions just yet, but it may be hard for at least some suspects to deny that they're involved.

Former Apple Global Operations manager Paul Devine was sentenced last week to one year in prison following his guilty plea on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and wire fraud. He also must repay $4.5 million for crimes against his employer Apple.

In 2010, Devine was arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in a scheme that benefited Apple's Asian suppliers and manufacturers. From 2007 until 2010, Devine and partner Andrew Ang received lucrative kickbacks in exchange for confidential internal Apple information such as product specifications and pricing. This information allowed the suppliers to negotiate more favorable contracts with Apple.

Devine will begin serving his sentence in February of 2015. An indictment against Ang in the US is still pending while Chua Kim Guan faces charges in his home country of Singapore.

In a turn of events that sound an awful lot like something out of Grand Theft Auto, a prominent politician has been arrested on corruption, gun-running and money laundering charges. The irony here is that it's California Democratic Senator Leland Yee, who was a vocal supporter of gun regulation and also authored AB-1179, the (defeated) bill that would have outlawed the sale of violent video games to the Golden State's minors. As the San Francisco Chroniclereports, the arrest was part of a lengthy sting that brought in some 26 other perps and even involved Yee taking campaign donations from an FBI agent posing as a mafioso. Yee's out on a $500,000 bond according to SF Weekly, but he's due back in court next week and is facing 16 years in prison.

California State Senator Leland Yee, noted anti-video games official, was arrested this morning on charges of bribery and corruption, SF Weekly reported. The FBI conducted a raid of San Francisco's Chinatown district, and KCRA reported that agents took "computers and other documents" from Yee's office in the state capitol.

Yee previously urged the Supreme Court to review the violent games bill AB-1179 his office authored in 2005, which failed at the Circuit Court level before being pushed through by then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' ruling, deeming the law a violation of First Amendment rights. Yee responded to the decision, declaring that it "put the interests of corporate America before the interests of our children" and that the games industry continued to profit "at the expense of our kids' mental health and the safety of our community."

Long-time readers will know that demonology AKA "demo" isn't my favorite warlock spec, but as I admitted to a friend recently, I can't recall seeing a "bad" demo warlock in organized raid. Demo 'locks are such well-oiled machines that once it clicks in your mind how to play, it's hard to not rock the meters.
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(warlock) blood pactcarrion-swarmchaos-wavecorruptiondemonic-furydoomfeaturedfelguardgoservgrimoire-of-serviceguide-to-locksguide-to-warlockshand-of-guldanhellfireimmolation-auralock-guidelock-infolock-talentsmetamorphosismists of pandariamolten-coreshadow-boltsoul-firetouch-of-chaosvoid-raywarlockwarlock-guidewarlock-infowarlock-talentswild-impwow-lockwow-lock-infowow-lockswow-warlockwow-warlock-infowow-warlockswrathguardFri, 28 Feb 2014 12:00:00 -050099|20835793https://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/24/blood-pact-affliction-101-at-90-in-the-end-of-mists/https://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/24/blood-pact-affliction-101-at-90-in-the-end-of-mists/https://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/24/blood-pact-affliction-101-at-90-in-the-end-of-mists/#comments

So you just boosted your warlock to 90 and... You decided that playing destro at 90 isn't for you, but you still want something easy to pick up. As of patch 5.4's changes to Soul Swap and the boost to DoTs after the KJC change, I'd argue affliction is easier to pull off than destro. Due to Soul Swap, everything is a single target to an "aff'lock."

Sometimes cartridges go bad. We can't explain what is going on in this footage of a corrupted Super Mario 64, presented by the same individual who posted that creepy Sesame Street footage earlier this year, but at least we know to avoid Princess Peach when she's baking a cake. Peach smash!

I started part one as an introduction, to set everything up. While "yaw" (keybinds and macros) and "pitch" (procs and cooldowns display) are important parts of a UI, you can't start doing your damage dealing job without a health bar to take down. So this week, we're going to look at all kinds of health bars you can find on a warlock's UI.

You can see all my unit frames in action here in the full version of the header image. Remember: I'm using the addons I use as examples, because it's easiest to draw from what I know. You can be an accomplished DPSer with minimal addons on a mostly default interface, if you so wish.
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(warlock) blood pactagonyboss-framescast-barscorruptiondebuffsdoomdotsfeaturedguide-to-locksguide-to-warlockshauntimmolatelock-guidelock-infolock-talentsmain-tank-framesmists of pandariaraid-fraimesunit-framesunstable-afflictionwarlockwarlock-guidewarlock-infowarlock-talentswow-lockwow-lock-infowow-lockswow-warlockwow-warlock-infowow-warlocksMon, 21 Oct 2013 13:00:00 -040099|20749224https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/10/13/eve-evolved-should-ccp-interfere-in-the-sandbox/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/10/13/eve-evolved-should-ccp-interfere-in-the-sandbox/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/10/13/eve-evolved-should-ccp-interfere-in-the-sandbox/#comments

When it comes to player outrage, EVE Online seems to make the headlines more than any other MMO. The game has endured several high-profile scandals in its 10-year history, from the T20 developer corruption incident in 2007 to 2011's famous Monoclegate scandal. As EVE is a true sandbox game with a focus on PvP and player competition, developers have historically limited their direct influence on the universe. The importance of limiting interference became abundantly clear during the T20 incident when it was discovered that a developer had given tech 2 blueprints and preferential treatment to the Band of Brothers alliance.

This interference in the sandbox had a profound and lasting impact on EVE's political endgame and undermined the legitimate accomplishments of other alliances. Some of the same issues that were raised in the wake of that scandal have now resurfaced amidst controversy over CCP's community team and its involvement with third-party fansites. Gambling website SOMER Blink was selected to host a huge giveaway event with rare prizes provided by CCP, and the contest organisers were then given rare battleships worth billions of ISK to keep as thank-you presents.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down the details of the latest EVE Online controversy and ask whether CCP should directly interfere in the sandbox at all.
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blinkccpccp-gamesccp-navigatorcorruptcorruptionculturedev diarieseveeve evolvedeve onlineeve-evolvedeve-onlineevents (in-game)favoritismfavouritismfeaturedgamblegamblinggiveawaysgold-magnateguardian-vexorishukone-watch-scorpionlotterym0omagnatemmo industryopinionopinion-pieceplayer-generated contentprizeprizespromotionssandboxscandalsci-fiscorpionsomersomer-blinksomer.blinksubscriptiont20vexorSun, 13 Oct 2013 18:00:00 -0400319|20744137https://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/blood-pact-warlock-stats-and-set-bonuses-in-patch-5-4-mon/https://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/blood-pact-warlock-stats-and-set-bonuses-in-patch-5-4-mon/https://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/blood-pact-warlock-stats-and-set-bonuses-in-patch-5-4-mon/#comments

It's all good. I'm going to survive. The healers haven't cleansed me since that last time I dropped the Gateway still inside the windstorm, so I'm stuck to my cookie cooldown. I really don't blame them for that. But, I gotta say it was worth a little cough to see all the melee drop dead like that. Don't worry, I'm not cursed or anyth--

Every warlock has at least one damage over time effect to take care of. Destruction has Immolate. Demonologists flip between Corruption and Doom (Metamorphosis), though I suppose you could count Shadowflame off Hand of Gul'dan as one. Affliction is the "DoT spec," starring Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, with appearances of Haunt.
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(warlock) blood pactafdotsagonycorruptioncursecurse-of-the-elementsdark souldarksouldoomellipsisfeaturedfortexorcistguide-to-locksguide-to-warlockshauntimmolatelock-guidelock-infolock-talentsmists of pandarianeedtoknowpandemicprocravenshadowflameunstable-afflictionwarlockwarlock-guidewarlock-infowarlock-talentsweakauraswow-lockwow-lock-infowow-lockswow-warlockwow-warlock-infowow-warlocksTue, 29 Jan 2013 14:00:00 -050099|20439988https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/20/german-prosecution-charges-hp-staff-with-bribing-russian-officials/https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/20/german-prosecution-charges-hp-staff-with-bribing-russian-officials/https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/20/german-prosecution-charges-hp-staff-with-bribing-russian-officials/#comments

The legal system's engines can take awhile to get churning, but there's no questioning the impact when they're at full bore. German prosecutors have wrapped up an almost three-year investigation into allegations of HP managers' bribery by charging the executives involved. Hilmar Lorenz, Päivi Tiippana and Ken Willett, along with claimed accomplice Ralf Krippner, have all been indicted for supposedly funneling €7.5 million ($9.7 million) in bribes through a German subsidiary and far-flung shell accounts to land a €35 million ($45.3 million) PC supply deal with Russia's Prosecutor General Office early in the previous decade. While only the people directly attached to the scandal currently face any consequences if found guilty, German lawyers are motioning to have the PC builder attached to the case, and there's a chance the formal charges could fuel an ongoing US investigation. HP is cooperating even as it's trying to distance itself from the indictments as much as possible -- these are for old allegations and a "former HP company," it says. While we don't yet know the whole story, it may be a protracted tale knowing that at least Tiippana and Willett plan to fight the accusations.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill, Savior of Azeroth, revisits some old patch 4.3 raid fight that everyone might have forgotten about and reflects on the insights into DPS it gave her.

Heroic Spine of Deathwing, 25man: I hated this fight with a passion.

At first I hated it because I could not possibly contribute as my favorite spec affliction and call it even with the rest of my guild's raid. I could pass by on normal, blaming my lack of burst for my low-metered results, but that wasn't going to cut it on heroic.

Then I started to hate the fight as I struggled to squeeze out every last drop of damage I had in me, even min-maxing my offspec demonology to progress with. Warlock hell, they called it. What a lockblock! My anger started to extend to things outside of WoW, emotionally and physically, because I was so frustrated with my apparent failure to kick some Destroyer derriere.

But the fight really opened up a lot of the finer points of DPSing an encounter. Heroic Spine reminded me that the fight isn't all about the end DPS number when the combat logs stop flowing.
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(warlock) blood pactamalgamationcataclysmcorrupted-bloodcorruptiondamage-controldamage-meterdamage-metersdpsdpsingfeaturedfiery-gripguide-to-locksguide-to-warlockshealth-barlock-guidelock-infolock-talentsmetamorphosispower-of-the-aspectspower-of-the-aspects-buffspine-of-deathwingwarlockwarlock-guidewarlock-infowarlock-talentswow-lockwow-lock-infowow-lockswow-warlockwow-warlock-infowow-warlocksMon, 10 Sep 2012 13:00:00 -040099|20315254